|
Born a slave, George Washington Carver became an important scientist and perhaps one of America’s most famous Black men at the time. As an agricultural researcher, he is mostly known today for promoting the ubiquitous peanut, which helped replenish the soil in the impoverished south. But he knew about a lot more than just the peanut.
He was a leader in educating farmers about crop rotation and yield. He understood what few others at the time did: the basic interconnectedness between the health of the land and people. He supported many of the concepts of modern environmentalism, believing that we must take care of the earth and all its inhabitants. In his master’s thesis, dated 1894, he wrote that “man must take the initiative in using nature to provide sustainable food systems that will help to alleviate hunger, encourage local participation and activism, and to safeguard and control our local food and water systems.”
|
